A quantity of downlink antenna ports in an existing Long Term Evolution (LTE for short) system may be one, two, four, eight, or the like. There is a maximum of eight antenna ports. Correspondingly, there is a maximum of eight ports in a measurement pilot configured by a base station.
In the conventional art, during CSI measurement, user equipment (UE for short) first obtains configuration information of a measurement pilot (for example, a port quantity of the measurement pilot or a pilot pattern of the measurement pilot), then measures, according to the configuration information of the measurement pilot, the measurement pilot sent by a base station, to obtain CSI, and finally, reports the CSI to the base station. In a CSI measurement process, the measurement pilot configured by the base station does not change. That is, when there is a given quantity of ports and the base station selects a given pilot pattern, the base station keeps sending the fixedly configured measurement pilot according to the selected pilot pattern, and the UE also keeps receiving the measurement pilot according to the pilot pattern, measures the measurement pilot, and provides a feedback.
However, there is a problem: In a CSI measurement process, the UE measures a fixedly configured measurement pilot and provides a feedback, repeatedly, and flexibility is poor.